UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871 [PAGE 176]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871
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168 motion of the true wings. The wings are much larger than the elytra, and in order to be covered by them require to be folded two ways, that is both longitudinally and transversely. The beetles are, as might be supposed, comparatively poor flyers. Some of them have no wings under their cases. Many which have wings seldom or never use them ; and many others, like the curculios and the leaf-beetles, or Chrysomelidse, when alarmed do not attempt to escape by flying, nor by running, but by contracting their legs and wings close to their bodies and dropping to the ground, usually amongst dead leaves or grass, where it is often impossible to find them. It was to take advantage of this singular habit that the contrivance known as Curculio-catcher was constructed. The Coleoptera are the most numerous, the most diversified, and the most generally collected and studied of all the orders of insects. They are the most easily captured, and preserved, of all insects, and therefore always constitute a large proportion of every general collection or catalogue. From this it undoubtedly follows that their numerical importance, as compared with some of the other large orders, such as the Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera, is considerably over-rated. Nevertheless, I think it will generally be admitted to take the precedence in this respect. It is also the most numerous and diversified in noxious species, no Other order approaching it in this respect, except the Lepidoptera. It contains the extensive and destructive family of Curculionidse or snout-beetles, the Chrysomelidse, or leaf beetles, he Melolonthidse, or leaf-chaffers, the Cantharides, or blister-beetles, and all the extensive tribes of wood borers, except a very small proportion of the larvae of the Lepidoptera. The second order of insects is the Orthoptera. This name is also composed of two Greek words opOoq (straight) and nrepa (wings). They are so called because the inferior or true wings are folded only lengthwise, like a fan. It includes the grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, and a few other families. These insects also have the wings covered by a case, analogus to the elytrum of the Coleoptera, but it is different in form and consistency, being longer, straighter and more flexible, resembling in texture, parchment more than horn. The wing-covers of the Orthoptera are called tegmina, to distinguish them from the elytra of the Coleoptera; unlike the elytra, they are, by some species at least, used in flight. Under these tegmina the wings, as I have said, *are folded straight or lengthwise, whilst under the shorter cases of the Coleoptera they require to be folded also crosswise. In this connection I have a great mind to tell you a little anecdote of my own early stud-